Alternative selected to widen Mountain Parkway in Wolfe County

Consultant selected to complete final design before land acquisition, construction

Campton, Ky. (August 19, 2015) – The Mountain Parkway Expansion team has completed preliminary design work on an 11-mile section of the parkway in Wolfe County and selected a preferred path for planned widening and improvements to the parkway.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet also has selected engineering consultant Parsons Brinckerhoff, Inc. to complete final design work on ¬¬the segment, which runs from just east of Campton to the Lee City/West Liberty (KY 205) interchange.

The preliminary design calls for the parkway to be expanded primarily along the south side of the current roadway – a path described as Alternative 2 on documents presented at a public meeting last year at Campton Elementary School and on the project website. (Detailed maps of the proposed alternative can be found at http://mtnparkway.com/planning-design-construction/wolfe-county-segment.)

The project will:
• Widen the parkway to four lanes;
• Reconfigure the existing Campton interchange (KY 191) to allow full eastbound and westbound access to and from the parkway;
• Modernize the Hazel Green interchange (KY 1010) to improve safety and mobility.

“We’ve spent the last year studying this stretch of roadway and talking with citizens to determine the best path for the expansion,” said Marshall Carrier, a KYTC engineer and project manager for the Mountain Parkway Expansion. “The next step is finalizing the roadway design so we will be in position to begin right of way acquisition and utility relocation in advance of construction.”

Next steps
As part of the final design process, Parsons Brinckerhoff will prepare detailed descriptions of affected properties by next summer. Parsons also will begin preparing detailed plans needed to begin construction.
Property acquisition could begin as early as next summer, but specific schedules for property acquisition and construction depend on availability of funding from the Kentucky General Assembly.

About the Mountain Parkway Expansion
The Mountain Parkway Expansion is a 46-mile transportation improvement project that will create a wider, safer connection between Eastern Kentucky and the rest of the Commonwealth. It is a key transportation project designed to close the only gap in a 400-mile, four-lane, high-speed corridor for commerce and mobility across Kentucky from Pikeville to Paducah. The project will widen 30 miles of the existing parkway from two lanes to four lanes, and will extend the parkway another 16 miles by widening KY 114 between Salyersville and Prestonsburg.
The Mountain Parkway Expansion is a key project of the Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR) initiative. Launched by Gov. Beshear and Congressman Hal Rogers in 2013, SOAR is designed to help the region develop and put into action new locally-oriented strategies to attack persistent challenges related to job training, health, education and economic development.
Project updates may also be found on Facebook (www.facebook.com/mtnparkway) and Twitter (@MtnParkway). A project office is open in Magoffin Plaza in Salyersville; call (606) 349-8160 for hours.